Beijing, China - June 20, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Screenshots showing COVID-19 situation dashboard by World Health Organization (WHO)

Denver, Colorado, USA - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
2. Vehicle passing testing site
3. Various of medical staff member working

New York City, USA - June 8, 2020 (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
4. Various of closed shops
5. Various of open stores, outdoor stand
6. Sign reading "Sorry we're closed, but still awesome"
7. Various of outdoor stand

Madrid, Spain - June 8, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
8. Various of pedestrians walking across plaza
9. People on street
10. Various of people relaxing at outdoor cafe

London, UK - June 15, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
11. Various of long queues outside shopping mall
12. Various of reopened store
13. Notice of close on glass wall
14. Closed store
15. Man pulling luggage, walking past underground station
16. Sign of underground
17. Street

Paris, France - June 15, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
18. Arc de Triomphe, traffic
19. Pedestrians
20. Various of customers at restaurant
21. Tourists, Arc de Triomphe
22. Shop
23. Customer at restaurant

Berlin, Germany - Recent (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland)
24. Residents walking on road in community
25. Various of traffic on street

FILE: Kashan City, Iran - May 13, 2020 (CCTV - No access Chinese mainland/Al-Arabiya/Persian language TV Stations outside Iran. Strictly No Access BBC Persian/VOA Persian/Manoto TV)
26. Various of empty bus moving on street
27. Various of closed store

The global confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continued to climb, while some countries are further loosening measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus.

The global confirmed COVID-19 cases reached 8,385,440, with 450,686 deaths, as of 15:18 CEST, Friday, according to the report from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The United States is still the worst-hit country in the world in terms of total infections and fatalities, followed by Brazil and Russia.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. topped 2.21 million, reaching 2,219,119, as of Friday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, the national death toll of COVID-19 rose to 119,086, according to the CSSE.

New York remains the hardest-hit state with 386,556 cases and 30,974 fatalities. Other states with over 100,000 cases include New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas, the tally showed.

New York City will enter phase two of reopening on June 22 if all requirements are met, its governor Andrew Cuomo said on Friday.

The state still has 1,284 COVID-19 patients receiving treatments by Friday, the lowest since the outbreak, data from the local government showed

New York City started phased reopening on June 8 after nearly three months of stay-at-home order, allowing some retailing business, construction and wholesale business to restart.

In phase two, hair salons, barbershops, and outdoor dining are among businesses allowed to restart operating. Retail shops should limit their capacity.

The government of New York City estimated that about 150,000 to 300,000 people are expected to return to work in phase two.

Spain's ministry of health on Friday rectify COVID-19 death data to 28,315 and announced to end the state of emergency from June 21.

Spain had not updated deaths related to COVID-19 for two weeks.

Health Minister Salvador Illa announced during a press briefing on Friday that health authorities have detected 982 coronavirus cases connected to 34 outbreaks since May 11, but all the outbreaks are under control.

He also said that the country will reopen its borders to all Schengen-zone except Portugal since June 21, but entry from a third-country will not be allowed till July 1.

Meaures to curb the transimission will remain in place in the Madrid region, after the state of emergency ends. Face masks will remain mandatory in indoor places and public transportation tools. All indoor businesses will have to operate at 60 percent capacity and 80 percent for outdoor food patios. Kindergartens will reopen on July 1, and entertainment facilities will remain closed till July 5.

In United Kingdom, the Department of Health and Social Care announced on Friday to lower the coronavirus alert level across Britain from four to three after a steady decrease in COVID-19 cases in the country.

Students in all year groups in UK will go back to full-time schooling in September, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced.

UK had another 173 COVID-19 patients died as of Thursday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 42,461, the British Department of Health and Social Care said Friday.

The figures include deaths in all settings, including hospitals, care homes and the wider community.

As of Friday morning, 301,815 people have tested positive for the disease in Britain, a daily increase of 1,346, according to the department.

As of Friday morning, there have been 7,433,114 tests of the novel coronavirus in the country, with 169,600 tests on Thursday, said the department.

France registered 14 new deaths from COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, the lowest single-day human loss since March 10, while the balance of the coronavirus-related hospitalization remains negative, France's Health Ministry said on Friday.

So far, 29,617 people have succumbed to the disease caused by the coronavirus, 19,160 of them died in health institutions, the ministry said in a statement.

France is now the world's fifth worst-hit country in terms of COVID-19 fatalities, after the United States, Brazil, Britain and Italy.

The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients went down below 10,000 for the first time since March 23. In the past 24 hours, 115 people had left hospital, taking the tally of recoveries to 9,970. Of those hospitalized, 727 cases required life support, down by 25 from Thursday's figure.

As of Friday, the country had confirmed 159,452 positive cases, a single-day increase of 811, the highest rise this week.

The ministry noted that the virus was actively circulating in overseas departments of Guiana and Mayotte, in addition to Normandy in northwestern France where the reproduction rate R0 increased to 1.6 after being below one at the end of May.

Strict screening and monitoring have been carried out in Normandy to contain the spread, the health ministry said.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Germany began to increase again, with 770 new cases confirmed within one day after an outbreak at a slaughterhouse of the Toennies Group in North Rhine-Westphalia, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) said on Friday.

The country now has a total of 188,534 cases, with 8,872 deaths, according to the RKI.

Iran, which has re-emerged as the hardest-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Middle East region, reported 2,615 new cases on Friday, brining the total number of infections to 200,262.

The pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 9,392 Iranians, up by 120 in the past 24 hours, while a total of 159,192 coronavirus patients have recovered, with 2,833 still in critical condition.

Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said on Thursday that Iran will continue to see infections and deaths related to the coronavirus in the upcoming year.